


Calling

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 12 Days of Sterek, Beaches, Bittersweet, Established Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Established Relationship, Loneliness, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Selkie Stiles Stilinski, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: When Stiles was a little boy, his mother used to sing him songs from a language he didn't understandAt first, he assumed it was Polish, but once he grew older and actually startedlearningPolish, he realized this wasn't the caseJust as werewolves howl to communicate, selkies sing- Stiles' song has gone unanswered for years, but tonight, he might finally get a response
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 5
Kudos: 267
Collections: 12 Days of Sterek





	Calling

**Author's Note:**

> Day 11 of 12 Days Of Sterek- I hereby vow to write more selkie!Stiles, I need it
> 
> The song is from "Song Of The Sea"

When Stiles was a little boy, his mother used to sing him songs from a language he didn't understand

At first, he assumed it was Polish, but once he grew older and actually started _learning_ Polish, he realized this wasn't the case

He wished he could remember the words, wished he knew how to write them so that he could get them translated or something but...

All he could remember were the sounds, the way they made him feel, how they.. _sounded_....

He would spend hours singing to himself, remembering his mother, feeling her voice vibrate through him as though she were there with him

He loved, especially, to sing on the roof, where no one else would bother him, where he had plenty of open space, where he could feel the coolness of the night air

He rarely put any thought behind this

Often times it was just something he _did_ , without explicit reason or explanation

He felt an urge for it, and the next thing he knew, there he would be

Even during the chaos of everything that had been going on around him for the past few years, he still made that journey up to the roof atleast two or three times a week and sang, even if it was wile battling sleep or... battling an ancient evil fox spirit... or... hell, during a million other problems and crisises....

He still found the time, the energy, the willpower, to sing

No matter what it took out of him

It just wasn't something he paid alot of attention to though

So the first time it happened once he had moved in with Derek had been a little bit of a surprise for them both

Derek had woken up in the middle of the night to a missing boyfreind and a strange song coming from his roof

Stiles had snapped out of his singing immediately, the way someone snaps out of an intense dream, feeling disoriented and confused, broken out in a cold sweat and with his heart hammering far too hard in his chest

He swallowed tightly, his hands shaking a little as he climbed to his feet and forced himself reluctantly off of the roof

It happened again the next week

And then again

And again

_And again_

It finally started to make some sense when he found out what he was, after what felt like years of an exhaustive search that had really only been a few months

Stiles Stilinski was a selkie

All those songs his mother had sung to him as a child had been seal songs, old Gaelic tunes from the sea that only the seal-folk knew

Selkies came from many different parts of the world, it just so happened that those from Ireland and Scotland had integrated the most into human society and therefore learned the most of human language- and it was those languages they had learned so long ago that spread throughout selkie society

It was one of those languages that Claudia had always sang to him with....

_"Idir ann is idir as, idir thuaidh is idir theas..."_

He didn't know what it meant, but he sang it passionately just the same

And Derek always listened

He always listened with so much dedication, always so eager to hear the song of Stiles' people, just as Stiles was always eager to hear the songs of Derek's when the wolf ran out beneath a full moon and let out a howl

Neither of them could understand eachother, not in words, but they _understood_ eachother all the same, in that instinctive way that all creatures could understand eachother

They listened intently to the sound of eachother's voices, to the calls of longing, the calls of heartache, those of pleasure and joy, those of pain and want, those that simply _called_ and waited for an answer

These days, when Derek called, he got his answers in the form of howls from his pack, of his freinds, of the wolves that surrounded Beacon Hills, be they his or not

Derek would stand out at the cliff's edge and bellow a howl out of his lungs, and listen with pleasantly pricked ears as howls of equal value came back to him from below the cliff, echoing from Scott and Liam and other wolves they had slowly been collecting over time, from Satomi's pack, from neighboring packs off in the distance

Finally, after so long of battling hunters and staying in hiding, Derek was able to start reclaiming what rightly belonged to him- his community, his _people_

But when Stiles called, he received nothing back

He sat out on the cliff's edge by the lake and sang, and he received no response

He sat on the rooftop and let the songs fall from his lips, but heard nothing in return

He did what he could to travel out to the ocean from time to time and pleaded through song, but was met with only silence, but for the crashing of ocean waves

Derek ached for his lover

He ached just as he was sure Stiles was aching

He knew well of the loneliness, he knew well of the pain, it was a familiar sting that pulsed in his veins, that stabbing loneliness of being.... well.... _alone_

Alone despite being surrounded by people

Alone in the way that only pack animals could feel truly alone

Alone in his species, as there was no one else like him...

Derek remembered that loneliness, he'd lived it for so many years...

And it hurt, it ached, it pained his very soul to see Stiles suffering that same loneliness

He wished he could make it better, but he knew there was little he could do

What was there? To look for a selkie message board or something?

He didn't know....

He had faith though, that if life had turned around for him, if life had bestowed upon him a pack, a restoration of his species, a return of the bonds he so desperately needed, then surely, life would do the same for Stiles

The difference, ofcourse, was that unlike werewolves, selkie couldn't quite be found anywhere and everywhere

They were most native to places surrounded by water, especially cold places, where seals were common

And although California certainly had a fine population of sea lions, it lacked the cold, wet, conditions that selkies often gravitated towards

Selkie may not ever live there in any decent quantity....

But he still had hope that someday, Stiles would find atleast one other person like himself

Just one other, so he wouldn't be alone...

It was a cold December night- even by California standards- only days before Christmas, when Derek was startled awake by Stiles suddenly tumbling out of bed and making his way to the bedroom door

It was almost like he was in a trance...

Before, Derek would have worried about this, but by now, it was nearly a routine

He understood it, Stiles was having an urge too strong to ignore, he needed to go out, to sing, to call for his people

Derek wondered breifly of selkie- being creatures of the sea- were compelled by the moon like werewolves were, but he resisted the urge to really question it at the moment

Stiles hesitated by the door, reaching out for the handle but withdrawing his hand a second later and turning to look over his shoulder at his boyfreind

"I... I need to go to the beach,"

There was no questioning

To the beach they went

~+~

It was six months after learning that he was a selkie that Stiles found his seal skin

It had been tucked away safely in a locked chest, the only key to wich Claudia had hidden amongst Stiles' baby things, stuffed inside a rattle that had to be broken open to fetch out

The skin had been so musty and dried out from being so aged and poorly stored, but it was still soft and warm, and when Stiles slipped it on for the first time and went to the water, even though he had only filled up the bath tub and took a splash in that, it had felt instantly like restoring a peice of himself that he hadn't known was missing

The skin had been treated well ever since

Now, Stiles clutched that skin to his chest tightly, staring out the window listlessly as Derek drove them along the road, past the cliffside, heading to the nearest beach, wich was over an hour away

There was no need to question it when one of them had an urge like this, they never so much as frowned at the idea

They both knew what these callings were like, after all

It would be hypocritical of either of them to refuse the other

When finally they reached the beach and parked the car, Stiles practically barrelled outside, his heart racing as he hurried to the shore line, kicking off his shoes and socks and letting his feet sink into the sand

He took a few big gulps of sea-salt air, letting it sting his lungs as he stared into the dark night sky, holding his skin around his shoulders like a coat as he began his familiar song

_"Idir ann is idir as... Idir thuaidh is idir theas.... Idir thiar is idir thoir.... Idir am is idir áit.... Casann sí dhom...."_

He waited with tightly held breath

He didn't know why but he felt.... he felt like this time, _this time_ , something would come of this

He waited....

And just as he was getting ready to give up-....

_"Amhrán na farraige... Suaimhneach nó ciúin... Ag cuardú go damanta... Mo ghrá..."_

That song....

 _That song_...

Stiles felt tears come to his eyes as he hurried to respond to the call

For atleast five minutes this continued

Stiles would sing, his song would be met with another

Derek watched it with the kind of amazement that one may watch a ballet with

By the time they had apparently reached the end of this vocal dance, Stiles began to shed his clothes, wich Derek had to act quickly to grab before they hit the sand, and hurriedly started to tug on his seal skin

Half-way through that process, Derek squinted, staring out at the sea and taking note of the dozens of smooth grey heads that bobbed up through the waves before them

Seals.... atleast twenty of them

No, not seals... _selkies_.....

Stiles was off within seconds, swimming out towards them, his own splotched and speckled seal hide bobbing in and out of the water enthusiastically as he wove his way through the cold ocean waves towards them

And so, Derek sat on the beach and waited

He didn't know nor did he care how long Stiles was out there with the other selkies

Stiles could have stayed until sunrise, past the afternoon, all night and day if he had needed to, wanted to, had the chance to

Somewhere though, still in the night, the others begin to leave, and Stiles finds himself alone again, coming back to shore after what could have been minutes or hours- he wasn't sure

"Are they coming back?" Derek asked immediately, the second Stiles began pulling himself to shore

"Do they live around here? Do you know?"

Pale fingers reached out of the seal's mouth, and within seconds Stiles had turned the skin back into that- a skin- and made it to his feet again

Human, once more, atleast in appearance

"I... think so, we talked about it, they said they would... I don't know if they live around here or not, I don't think so but... maybe... maybe close enough,"

"Close enough" was a hell of alot better than "nowhere near"

For a wile after, they were quiet, staying on the beach as Stiles dried off and redressed, simply... letting the encounter sink in

The wind was cold, but neither minded

"We'll come back tommorrow," Derek said suddenly, taking Stiles by surprise

"I-.... we will? I mean what if I don't ne-"

"We'll come back tommorrow," Derek reasserted, wrapping his arm around Stiles' waist and leaning closer to give him a gentle kiss

They would come back every night for the rest of eternity if it meant Stiles being with his people, even if that only happened once in a blue moon

Because Derek knew better than anyone the importance of being with people like yourself

He understood the need for a tribe, a herd, a _pack_

Stiles had been so key years before in helping Derek find and assemble his pack, and now Derek wanted to have some element in helping Stiles find his own


End file.
